Safe Space Analysis

What is safe space? Does safe space even exist? From the article “The Seduction of Safety, on Campus and Beyond”, writer Roxane Gay defines safe space as “it allows people to feel welcome without being unsafe because of the identities they inhabit. A safe space is a haven from the harsh realities people face in their everyday lives” (Gay). People can appreciate the assurance of safety, whether it’s at home, school, or public places. There are always uncertainties whether a place considers itself as safe. In the article written by Gay, she argues the difficulty of finding a secure sanctuary that has the label safe. In addition to strengthen her argument, she uses examples of her personal experience in relation to safety, recent events in college

In the movie Freedom Writers, students who were experiencing racial prejudice sought out and found their safe haven in their English class. The progression of the movie displays the students enthusiastically expressing themselves as individuals for they feel the safety their teacher provides within the classroom. The students’ personal stories, whether it is about being involved in gangs, a disoriented family, etc., they all had an arduous time finding a safe environment (LaGravenese). Definitely, Gay creates an argument on how safety is hard to find, straightforwardly, “non-

“Those who mock the idea of safe space are most likely the same people who are able to take safety for granted”(Gay). Falling into the fallacy of ad hominem, Gay slowly starts to largely attack people who take safety for granted, while creating a hasty generalization. “While no one guarantees absolute safety, and everyone knows suffering, there are dangers members of certain populations will never know”(Gay). In addition, she starts to mention different groups such as “white people will never understand the dangers black people face, men not knowing what dangers women face, or even Heterosexuals will never know the experience of homophobia” (Gay). Generally it is widely accepted to be true, but Gay is creating a hasty generalization of different groups that never experienced a safe